Seven Effective Habits

Tony Dungy is a highly respected pillar in the athletic community. Breaking barriers throughout his coaching carrier; he was propelled into the spotlight when he became the first African American coach to win a Super Bowl title. Shortly following his victory in Super Bowl XLI came much intrigue into his coaching style and personal life. Many wondering how he gained the respect of all his players and produced positive results while maintaining a calm demeanor. In his book, Quiet Strength, Tony Dungy speaks on the importance of faith and family. Emphasizing the power of prayer, commitment, and patience within faith. As well as the impact of his family on his career, that ultimately changed the path he had preferred for himself.

The book Uncommon is written by Tony Dungy. Coach Dungy is recognizable because of his Super Bowl victory in 2007 with the Indianapolis Colts. He is an African American coach who believes in putting others before himself, the importance of how people act in everyday life, and surrounding himself with people he can trust. In his book, Dungy goes through chapter-by-chapter describing different morals a person should have. In each chapter, he gives examples of the importance of that moral through stories of his personal and professional life. As a student-athlete, I believe that the morals he lists are admirable and should be held in every player.

One of the factors that successfully reduced the majority of prejudice within the team was superordinate goals. The goals set by Boone were made purposely unachievable by a single member. The only way for these goals to be achieved is the cooperation of the entire team. As he told the team, their game must be “a team effort in order to achieve perfection”

While working hard is an important factor in being successful in every sport, it is especially prudent in football. The hype behind the sport causes athletes and communities to love the sport. No other sport has a week like homecoming, football players are put on a pedestal and academics are essentially put on hold due to the lack of focus. The entire week focuses on Friday night’s game. This hype draws the biggest and best athletes to want to be a part of the fun—to be on that pedestal. This in turn makes the competition within the sport better. Being on the team isn’t enough though, as my head coach used to say, “Homecoming is fun, but it’s worth nothing if you lose Friday night.” Knowing the entire week is dedicated to one game causes the team to work harder than the athletes in other sports. The standard expected by the coaches carries over to the classroom and into the athlete’s lives outside of high school. Kevin Kniffin, a behavioral scientist as Cornell University, studies and teaches about the leadership skills and character traits of athletes from

Sports are a significant part of society and spectators enjoy particular events regardless of the type. However, there are many players who develop special working and social relationships with whom they are participating regardless of the type of sport. The relationship and how people interact with one another can be the determination of how successful a team can be. The particular film based on a true story that I chose is titled When the Game Stands Tall. This film consists of a high performing football team of De La Salle High School in the state of California. Jim Caviezel portrays the head coach (Bob Ladouceur) as a man with such vision and passion that goes beyond the fundamental principles of coaching the game of football. The football team had won 151 games without being defeated which is the highest winning record a team has had in the game of football. The film shows the internal struggles of the players in their lives as people, and how they perform on the field. It also shows the external tragic difficulties that they face while they attend and play for De Le Salle High School. In the movie, the head coach helps the students/players by not only coaching them but also showing them how to live a flourishing life by committing to endure difficult life situations and the way to overcome them. He helps teach the principles of brotherhood and companionship with the team that they build. In the movie, the head coach and the staff had taught the players

Over the summer, I read a book titled, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Convey. The seven habits described in this book were being proactive, Beginning with the end in mind, put first things first, think win-win, seek first to understand, then to be understood; synergize, and sharpen the saw. The first habit Being proactive means not to make choices on impulse. it means to evaluate the situation before making a desicion. for example, two years ago when i had friends that talked behind my back i just moved on and found better friends rather than be mean to them or excluding them out of my way. The second habit Beginning with the end in mind means to think ahead at what your goals are and start working towards them. My goal for the eight grade year was to recieve a 95% or higher score in all of my classes. in order to realize this goal i worked hard through the year on assignments and and sometimes did more than what was expected of me during projects. in the end, though,

Raul Palafox, a Central California League first team receiver and first team safety attributed much of his success to his team. He said, "It's the team that wins the games. They're the ones that enabled me to do as well as I did, and I gave everything I had for them in return. I'm nothing on the field without my team." Palafox like many other players have attributed their personal success to their team, and it can be said that this is a result of the lessons players have undergone by their coaches. Loyalty is also another trait that coaches have highly stressed. Many times in my own personal football career my coach instructed us in this trait. An example of this was the fact that we were not to talk to anyone but fellow players before a game. This would show that our concentration and attention were only on the task at hand, and the people that would enable our victory. Such loyalty has been shown in other contexts as well. Norton Kim, another highly decorated first team player said, "There's a lot of times where I've gotten into fights because (people) were messing with my friends… They're (football teammates) like my brothers." On and off the field, many high school football players have shown in action and deed how much the loyalty taught to them through the game has affected their lives. Finally, the ethic of working hard can safely be said to have been taught to just about every football team in the nation.

Did you know that there are seven habits that can help make you a better team player? I am only going to go over four habits that I noticed in the move 12 Angry Men. Those are habit one be proactive, habit four win-win, habit five seek first to understand, and habit six synergy.

Following mentioned is a quick summary of the seven habits mentioned in the book to become an effective

This habit is about prioritizing, planning, and executing a week 's tasks based on importance rather than urgency. It requires that I evaluate whether or not my efforts exemplify my desired character values, propel me towards my goals, and enrich the roles and relationships discussed in Habit 2.

There was always the white community and black community separated by the hatred for one another. Coach Boone tries to change their behaviors by having a white teammate share a room with a black teammate to conform in a good way. He wanted to change the attitudes and beliefs toward the opposite race by putting pressure on the group. Both coaches conform together to show both teams that coming together can give great results in a community that was so segregated. There was lot of bullying between groups in the movie and teasing. The biggest positive of conformity is acceptance. When you conform, people will be more willing to accept you because you are falling

High school football is an activity much more encompassing than most are aware. It requires great attention, effort, and behavior. These qualities are expected of players not only at practice, but in the community and classrooms as well. If these standards are not met, one will be swiftly dismissed from the team. Football is a passion that is shared with many teammates. After the numerous hours invested into this craft, these teammates are transformed into family. The magnitude of heart and soul allocated to this sport is so massive, that every loss is met with tears and mourning with brothers.

Everyday, I practiced the rules of self-discipline to take charge of my learning. For example, while doing my math problem sets, I wouldn’t let myself check the math answers until I completed all my math exercises. Eventually, these practices became an ingrained habit. As a reward of my self-discipline, my math skills improved greatly, and I earned good grades. In addition, “Striving for Excellence” guided me to overcome learning obstacles at Notre Dame School with a great learning environment, separated from the world outside. During school years, my friends and I challenged ourselves and competed amongst each other in order to excel. On class projects that required teamwork, we cooperated and needed each other. When playing sports, we trained and pushed ourselves hard, and we tried to keep sportsmanship. Finally, renovating my behaviors with a strict discipline, Notre Dame changed my life totally, as I have grown up both physically and mentally with other

Coach John Wooden is again the perfect role model to end my discussion on cultural issues in sport psychology. He used his “Pyramid of Success” as the foundation of his principles, values, and character that defined ethical and moral identity.

* By applying these 7 habits , knowing yourself Continues improvement and productivity etc.. we say that